Mia never planned on falling for a hockey player. She just happened to know his jersey number first. Loud, outgoing, and a little too observant for her own good, Mia has been watching Carter from the stands long before he notices her back. When they finally meet at the rink, the chemistry is instant: easy laughs, late-night hangouts, and a spark that turns into something real faster than either of them expected. Carter is charming, funny, and skating toward a pro career sooner than anyone realizes, including Mia. He doesn't lie. He just doesn't say the one thing that matters. And Mia, knowing his reputation and afraid of asking for too much, lets herself fall anyway. Somewhere between shared fires, stolen moments, and a drunken hayride, they cross the line from casual to complicated. When the truth finally comes out, Mia has to decide if loving him was worth being the last to know, and Carter has to learn that choosing someone means trusting them with the whole story. Because falling is easy. Staying takes honesty.

Sterling Carter's life is built on control-perfect grades, perfect form, perfect trajectory straight to the Olympic volleyball team. At twenty-two, she's the star outside hitter at the University of Michigan and top of her class in dentistry, the golden product of an old-money family that only loves success. One game, one bad landing, and one opponent's foot hidden under the net is all it takes to blow it apart. With a torn ACL and PCL and a nine-to-twelve-month recovery, Sterling's dream is suddenly on life support. The scouts stop calling. Her parents pull away. For the first time in her life, there's no plan she can grind her way through, no version of "try harder" that will fix what's broken. Enter Maddox King-twenty-four, captain of Michigan's D1 hockey team, human freight train on the ice, and soft-hearted menace off it. He has everything Sterling doesn't: a loud, loving family, a stupidly loyal group of friends, and the unshakable belief that people are worth more than what they can do. When a twist of timing and one overinvested best friend pull Sterling into Maddox's orbit, he becomes the one person who refuses to treat her like she's ruined. As the season she was supposed to dominate turns into a year on the sideline, Sterling has to learn how to exist without the one thing that's always defined her-and decide whether letting Maddox in is one more risky play she can't afford... or the first choice she makes entirely for herself. Book #1 in the 'Carter' series